Intentionally creating a topsy-turvy journey through the rifts, valleys and mountains covering the petals of the calendula, poppy and rose, so unbelievably small, I painstakingly inserted Alessandro’s images of epidermal cells, each measuring approximately 20 μm, in to the flowers I photographed with a macro lens.

Imagine a landscape of one million mountains covering a single rose petal of 2x2cm² — furthermore where an atom to a rose cell is the equivalent to a hedgehog to Mont Blanc!

The composition is a reproduction, where possible, of “Still Life with Flowers on a Marble Tabletop”, an oil painting by the Dutch artist, Rachel Ruysch, 1716, (collection of the Rijks Museum, Amsterdam).

For more information:

Miséricorde | Bâtiment 4, 1^er étage | Salle 4128 (A4)

Faculté des sciences et de médecine | Institut Adolphe Merkle

University of Fribourg

Chemin des Verdiers 4 | CH-1700 Fribourg

+41 26 300 9254 | info-ami@unifr.ch

Soft Matter Physics Group

Rijks Museum

Museumstraat 1, Amsterdam

Still Life with Flowers on a Marble Tabletop

Rachel Ruysch 1716

height 48.5 cm × width 39.5 cm

Rijks Museum